Vegan Restaurants in New Orleans: Plant-Based Picks

Vegan restaurants in New Orleans cook the city's classics without meat: red beans, okra gumbo, jambalaya and po-boys. A soul food kitchen, a plant-based garden kitchen and a cafe with vegan dishes are named by both a recent tourism board list and a VegNews guide. Ask each kitchen about its broth, fat and fryer before you order.

Which vegan restaurants in New Orleans do two sources name?

New Orleans cooking leans on pork, seafood and butter, so the places below stand out. The tourism board updated its vegetarian list, and VegNews published a vegan guide. These three are on both.

• A vegan soul food kitchen is known for versions of New Orleans classics, including red beans, okra gumbo, jambalaya and bread pudding, plus vegan ice cream, per the tourism board. VegNews places it on North Broad Street and says the menu changes daily, with dishes such as mushrooms and gravy and cashew macaroni.
• A plant-based kitchen on North Claiborne Avenue serves breakfast and plates. The tourism board names crabless cakes, an okra gumbo with filé and the I-tal plate, and VegNews lists chickpea-battered avocado slices, jackfruit ribs and a pancake platter.
• A cafe with locations in the Central Business District and Uptown has vegan dishes. The tourism board names its Buffalo cauliflower, vegan queso and vegan burgers, and VegNews adds a vegan breakfast burrito. It is not fully vegan, so ask about the menu's meat items.

VegNews also lists Dat Dog, which sells vegan sausages and a vegan bratwurst among its build-your-own dogs, as a place with a vegan section rather than a vegan kitchen. None of these is a ranking. Menus change, so confirm what is on the board today.

Is there vegetarian food in New Orleans beyond vegan kitchens?

Yes, and the line between the two matters. A vegetarian dish may contain dairy, eggs or honey, while a vegan one contains none of them. The tourism board's list shows a mix: Mediterranean kitchens with falafel and hummus, Thai and Vietnamese places with tofu dishes, and Indian and Mexican counters with vegetable curries and tacos. Walk into any of them and ask which dishes are vegetarian today, because a cook can change a stock or a garnish without changing the menu.

For a mixed group, a place with a meat-free section is easier than a vegan restaurant that not everyone wants. For a vegan diner, a fully plant-based kitchen removes the guesswork.

How do you find meatless Creole in New Orleans?

Meatless Creole is a real tradition, not a modern workaround. The Lenten custom of giving up meat produced dishes such as green gumbo, red beans cooked without pork on some tables and fish-only menus on Fridays. Our Holy Thursday gumbo guide explains how that tradition works.

Today, the vegan kitchens build meat-free versions of the same dishes. The test of a good one is the base: a smoky depth from spices and vegetables, not a copy of the pork. When you order a vegetarian gumbo in New Orleans, ask whether the roux and stock are made without meat, because many kitchens start from a seafood or sausage stock.

What does the Vegan tag mean in the Mosey app?

Vegan and Vegetarian are tags a rater can add to a rating. They record the rater's experience of a visit and let other diners filter for them when they search. They are not a promise by the place, a certification or a guarantee, so a tag is a starting point and a conversation with the kitchen is the check. The same goes for Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free and Allergen-Friendly: they are labels people choose to add, and anyone with an allergy should ask the cook directly.

Add Vegan only when the dish was vegan, and name the dish. A rating that says "okra gumbo, no meat in the stock, the server confirmed" is worth more than the tag alone.

How do you rate and list plant-based meals?

In the Mosey app only the place and stars are needed, and "Rate each dish too" lets you name the gumbo, the burger or the breakfast plate. "Tags earn badges and help people find this place" is where you add Vegan or Vegetarian. Rate three or four dishes across a week and you will see which kitchens you return to.

Make a list called Meat-free New Orleans and add a note on each place, such as "ask for no butter". Share it by invite link with a vegetarian friend so they can add their own, and the shortlist is built by two people instead of one. Use "Who were you with?" to tag the friends you ate with, and open the map to see Friends' picks when you want to know what the people you follow rated or saved. The ratings page explains the steps.

Where next in the city?

For another kind of kitchen, the Vietnamese food guide covers banh mi and pho, many with tofu options, and the coffee shops guide covers cafes with plant milks. The New Orleans hub lists every page for the city, and the US food guides cover other towns.

Get the Mosey app, rate your next plant-based plate by the dish and keep the kitchens you trust on a list.